This week’s recommendation isn’t a book, but a podcast that will quickly fill out your reading and films-to-see lists. You Must Remember This was my #1 podcast discovery of 2015 (and I’m still getting through the backlog of episodes, some of them more than once). Much to my partner’s chagrin, this ‘cast has been playing in my kitchen nonstop every night during dinner prep since I first heard about** Karina Longworth‘s fascinating and well-researched take on the early days of the American film industry.

Billed as “the podcast dedicated to exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century,” You Must Remember This provides hours upon hours of stories about film’s greatest stars rising, getting tarnished, fading away, and—rarely—how they come to shine brightly again. Longworth’s depth of coverage is astounding, and her narrative interjections about the old studio system and celebrity culture are sharp, particularly on how the golden days treated its female stars. Better yet, each episode is paired with notes on the podcast’s Episode Notes page (this is where you get your reading and film recommendations, though if you’re not chopping onions you could probably take notes while listening).

Favourite Eps: The Carole Lombard & Clark Gable Episode. I cried like a baby. Just listen.
Buster Keaton’s Biggest Mistake. How the whip-smart silent film star fell. Hard.
And: All of the MGM Stories series. A 15-episode divergence on how Louis B. Mayer made a studio, generally destroying lives along the way, and ended up getting canned from it as Hollywood’s golden age wound down. Enjoy.

* I first heard Karina Longworth on Longform, another great podcast; this one features interviews with nonfiction writers and journalists. More on Longform some other time, but the link here is to the episode with Longworth. Immediately after the episode I went straight to You Must Remember This and I haven’t stopped since.